美联社新闻一分钟 2006-07-02

1. NASA will have to try again tomorrow. Bad weather forced Mission Control to call off today's scheduled launch of Discovery at the last minute. NASA will try again tomorrow but bad weather is still on the forecast. This would have been the first shuttle mission in nearly a year.

2. A car bomb rips through an open-air market in Baghdad today, killing¹ at least 66 people, nearly 90 people are injured. It's the bloodiest² attack in Iraq since the death of terrorist leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi.

3. Doctors say Vice³ President Cheney's pacemaker is working just fine. The 65-year-old VP had a physical today. Cheney has a long history of heart trouble but his physician says the pacemaker has not had to stabilize⁴ any irregular heartbeats and his overall heart condition is stable.

4. Andre Agassi lost at Wimbledon for the last time. Playing in his fourteenth Wimbledon, the American lost in straight sets to Rafael Nadal. The 36-year-old Agassi could not keep up with the 20-year-old Spaniard. Agassi will retire from tennis later this year. He won his first Grand Slam tournament in 1992 when Nadal was 6 years old.

WORDS IN THE NEWS

1. Mission Control : n-uncount
Mission control is the group of people on Earth who are in charge of a flight by a spacecraft, or the place where these people work.

2. open-air : adj
An open-air place or event is outside rather than in a building.
= outdoor

3. pacemaker : n-count
A pacemaker is a device that is placed inside someone's body in order to help their heart beat in the right way.

4. physical : n-count
A physical is a medical examination, done in order to see if someone is fit and well enough to do a particular job or to join the army.
= medical

5. set : n-count
one section of a match in games such as tennis or volleyball
e.g. She won in straight sets (= without losing a set).

6. Spaniard : n-count
A Spaniard is a Spanish citizen, or a person of Spanish origin.

1 killing   

n.巨额利润；突然赚大钱，发大财

参考例句：

• Investors are set to make a killing from the sell-off.投资者准备清仓以便大赚一笔。
• Last week my brother made a killing on Wall Street.上个周我兄弟在华尔街赚了一大笔。

2 bloodiest   

adj.血污的( bloody的最高级 )；流血的；屠杀的；残忍的

参考例句：

• The Russians were going to suffer their bloodiest defeat of all before Berlin. 俄国人在柏林城下要遭到他们的最惨重的失败。 来自辞典例句
• It was perhaps the bloodiest hour in the history of warfare. 这也许是战争史上血腥味最浓的1个小时。 来自互联网

3 vice   

n.坏事；恶习；[pl.]台钳，老虎钳；adj.副的

参考例句：

• He guarded himself against vice.他避免染上坏习惯。
• They are sunk in the depth of vice.他们堕入了罪恶的深渊。

4 stabilize   

vt.（使）稳定，使稳固，使稳定平衡；vi.稳定

参考例句：

• They are eager to stabilize currencies.他们急于稳定货币。
• His blood pressure tended to stabilize.他的血压趋向稳定。